Michael Francis Gilbert, born in 1912, is a British writer of both fictional mysteries and thrillers who writes as Michael Gilbert. He was a lawyer in London for many years and at one point had Raymond Chandler as his client. He has had a very long and very productive writing career, beginning with his first novel, Close Quarters, in 1946 and continuing through 1999 with Over and Out. He has written almost every sort of mystery and thriller, perhaps spreading himself too thin over too many fields to achieve the reputation that many critics feel he deserves. He has written police procedurals, spy novels and short stories, courtroom dramas, classical mysteries, adventure thrillers, crime novels, and almost every possible combination of these, all with the same competence and dry, detached wit. 1912 was a leap year starting on Monday. ... In modern colloquial English, a mystery is a subgenre of detective fiction (see mystery fiction). ... The thriller is a genre of fiction in which tough, resourceful, but essentially ordinary heroes are pitted against villains determined to destroy them, their country, or the stability of the free world. ... Raymond Chandler Raymond Thornton Chandler (July 23, 1888 – March 26, 1959) was an American author of crime stories and novels. ... Jump to: navigation, search The police procedural is a sub-genre of the mystery story which tries to demonstrate accurately the activities of a police force as they investigate crimes. ... The spy fiction genre (sometimes called political thriller) first arose just before the First World War, at about the same time, the first organized intelligence agencies were being formed. ... A legal drama is a work of dramatic fiction about law, crime, punishment or the legal profession. ... Sherlock Holmes, pipe-puffing hero of crime fiction, confers with his colleague Dr. Watson; together these characters popularized the genre. ...

Perhaps among his very best books are two collections of short stories about two gentlemanly but exceedingly hard-boiled fictional British counterspies, Mr. Calder and Mr. Behrens, "middle-aged cut-throats" as one of their adversaries bitterly refers to them. One of his earliest novels, Smallbone Deceased, is also highly regarded by many.

External links

• http://www.mysterylist.com/gilbert.htm appraisal of all of Gilbert's books